New car rough running

I'd keep getting on at the garage. You've got a 3 year warranty and any fiddling you do yourself is liable to lead to FIAT saying "You've buggered up your warranty by not getting work done by us".

I can't think of how the diagnostic computers going to help , it sounds more like a badly aligned exhaust.

Take it back to the garage. Ask them to fix the problem. I don't know if the part of the SOGA which refers to a refund applies to cars, but if it does, demand a refund if they can't fix the problem within 5 months.

It sounds exhaust related to me.

yup, or the engine tie bar.It could be there is no actual faulty part as such, but another idea is, as said, the exhaust happens to RESONATE at a certain engine speed.

Many thanks for the replies. The problem is that if it is going to make it's noise, it is not at one particular engine speed, but at all! The gruffness can be heard the moment you give it some gas, and sounds more gruff/boomy as the engine revs increase. Under light load it is not bad, but if I were to rev it a bit, the noise can get really bad. Other days, the car can be driven as hard as you like (not that I make a habit of driving it too hard) and the sound is smooth and 'zingy'(!) and you could drive it all day long. I've tried to see if there is a pattern in the good/bad running, but there doesn't really seem to be one, except if I drive it a mile or two from cold, and then come back to it, starting with the engine just slightly warmed, it will always drive as smooth as you like. Apart from that, it appears to be random. I don't really know, but if it was an exhaust problem, wouldn't the same noise be there all the time? To the other poster who said about refusal if they cannot fix it, the problem I have is that the garage refuse to see a problem, as it always works perfectly when they drive it. I've even drove it for them, and it didn't put a foot wrong. It was very embarassing.

Many thanks for the replies so far. Kelly

At 3 months old, you will have problems of refusing the car. There was once a court decision where refusal was denied after only one weeks of ownership. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that the car could be exchanged if it can't be repaired. My guess that it is the engine management system since it is intermittent and random. If you get nowhere, you could perhaps try to get an independent engineers rapport from AA or RAC, but don't delay.

gruff/boomy as

Kelly,

There have been reports of this is some of the fiat forums;

I think one of the posters has eventually got the dealership to acknowledge there is a problem and even admitted they do not know what it is yet. There is a big problem with main dealers at the moment as as you have experienced they plug in the computer and if no fault is indicated they see nothing wrong. My car last Fiat was outside a dealership refusing to start and they pushed it into the workshop and checked it on the computer; they then said nothing is wrong with it (OK so whay won't it start). Fortunately there was a slighlty more experienced technician (aren't they mechanics anymore?) who knew straight away that there must be air in th fuel system (diesel).

Good luck,

Andy

Thanks for the link, but I cant see anyone with the same problem? (many other eyeopeners though!). You're right, the dealer doesn't seem able to understand that a fault can be there even though his computer tells him it's fine. I'm a bit stuck now because I've had it back and forth to both dealers, who now seem convinced that I'm wasting their time, and won't do anything. Last week when it was in, they had it all day, and when I picked it up, the mileage had only increased 0.1 miles - probably rolled across to the computer and back. They don't even bother to drive it.

Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Is it not possible to make a recording of the noise and play it to the dealer? At least then they'd have a harder time of denying that it exists.

Mark